The only contact we had with "actual users" was over WeChat because they were on the other side of the planet.

> What's missing here is the courage to recognize weak assumptions and deliberately avoid writing any code until enough details are pinned down to get to an agreement from all parties, not just say yes to the person "in charge".

Uber was pathologically bad in this sense. There was no time to get details pinned down. We had a product to ship in two weeks for non-technical stakeholders. If we didn't, the stated consequence was millions of dollars in losses to the business. Throwing up your hands until you get product clarity when you know you can solve the problem as-is is a great way to find yourself with a PIP.